


all i want for christmas (is a break)

by notveryglittery (darlingdany)



Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Conflict, Conflict Resolution, Gen, Miscommunication, Post Accepting Anxiety, Post Fitting In, Secret Santa, cookies make everything better
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-18
Updated: 2018-12-18
Packaged: 2019-09-21 20:26:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,465
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17049995
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/darlingdany/pseuds/notveryglittery
Summary: it's virgil's first real christmas with the others. it doesn't go as well as they'd all like.





	all i want for christmas (is a break)

**Author's Note:**

> another prompt from [sanders sides celebrations!](https://sanderssidescelebrations.tumblr.com/)

“There is absolutely no reason to panic,” Logan said in a tone that was very much bordering on panicked.

“It has to be _perfect_ ,” Roman snapped without looking up from the notebook he was furiously scribbling in. The words were hardly legible, given the impatience he was writing with. It’d be safe to assume, however, that they were gift ideas, each more extravagant than the last.

Patton was pacing through the living room; he looped around the coffee table and down the hall towards the entry into the kitchen, back again passed the staircase, and by the entertainment center, before he tread the same path once more. He was wringing his hands together and muttering under his breath, occasionally biting at a fingernail or scrubbing a palm against his cheek.

Virgil appeared as if from thin air, though he really had taken the steps one at a time, had any of the others been paying enough attention. For a moment, he watched quietly from his spot. Guilt tore through him. This was _his_ fault, after all. It would be the first Secret Santa that Thomas was participating in since Virgil had shared his name and they’d begun to accept him into their group.

Patton, of course, noticed his presence first.

“Virgil!” He cried, stumbling in how suddenly he came to a halt. He approached, taking Virgil’s hands in his own. He seemed too distressed to realize what an invasion of privacy this was. “I’m so glad you’re here!”

“Are you?” Roman snarked in the same breath Virgil muttered it.

Patton sent a sharp glare over his shoulder to Roman, who didn’t see it anyway, as he was still writing.

“Of _course,_ ” Patton reassured, looking to Virgil with wide eyes. “I have a tiny little favor to ask of you, though.”

Virgil stiffened and slowly pulled his hands free of Patton’s hold. “… What’s that? 

“Can you maybe,” Patton began, clasping his own hands together and pressing them against his chest, “perhaps if you’re able… No big deal if you aren’t! It might just help if… Well, it’s just so hard to focus, you see…” 

“Spit it out, Patton,” Logan piped up from his spot at the table, where it looked like he was trying to decipher a piece of paper that Roman had tossed aside. Clearly, he wasn’t doing much better than his companions, though.

“Can you tone it down a little?” Patton rushed through his request, expression already crumpling in regret.

Virgil couldn’t say that he hadn’t seen it coming but that didn’t mean it didn’t sting.

“Sure,” he responded, easily. “Yeah, totally. Let me do that.” He closed his eyes and pressed his index fingers to his temples. His face scrunched up in concentration. A moment of silence followed — even the scratching of Roman’s pen paused.

Virgil opened one eye. “Is it working?” The sarcasm in his voice was a dead giveaway.

Roman stood up, knocking his chair over as he did so. He threw the pen at Virgil but his aim was way off and it bounced harmlessly off the wall. “If you’re not going to help, then just get out!”

“Roman!” Patton scolded, rounding on the prince. “We do _not_ talk to each other like that!”

“ _Pump the brakes, Princey,_ ” Logan said in a a tone that seemed entirely unimpressed with Roman’s tantrum.

Virgil folded his arms over his chest and glared at Roman with half-lidded disinterest. “Yeah, ‘cause that worked out so well for you guys last time. 

Patton flinched. 

“Perhaps we ought to take a break and reconvene once you’ve all calmed down,” Logan suggested.

“Oh! Right, because _you’re_ doing just fine, aren’t you!” Roman shot back. He gestured to Logan from top to bottom — or, top to chest given the rest of him was hidden by the table — and it was clear just what he meant. His hair was unruly from a hand being run through it one too many times, his glasses sat crookedly on his nose, and the tie might as well have been removed completely given how loose it was.

“I _am,_ thank you very much,” he said, scowling at Roman. “As we are currently in a neutral zone of the Mindscape, Virgil’s anxieties have no power over me. They don’t over _any_ of us and if you would take a single _second_ to breathe and quit blaming him for every single one of your problems, then you would realize that!”

In his rant, Logan had risen from his chair and his hands were clenched now at his sides. Patton looked unwell, his face gone pale and his shoulders beginning to shake. Roman, however, seemed even angrier; apparently not, though, with Logan.

Storming towards Virgil, he shoved Patton out of his way and leaned in so close to the former, that their noses were nearly touching. Patton gave a startled gasp, catching himself on the back of recliner. Virgil, if anything, looked more upset about Roman’s lack of care than he did the lack of distance between them.

“This is your first Christmas with us and we’ve never had trouble like this before!” Roman hissed, jabbing a finger into Virgil’s chest. “Who _else_ am I supposed to blame?!”

Virgil pushed hard at Roman’s shoulder, granting himself some space. “Yourself, maybe?” Virgil offered, scoffing. “I suppose you want to impress me just as much as you do Thomas. I’m flattered, really.”

Patton whimpered very softly, wrapping his arms around himself.

“You always do this,” Virgil said accusingly. “You know how busy Thomas gets this time of year and yet you still insist he goes for every single Secret Santa, all the holiday parties you can get him to agree to, each Friendsmas, all those special productions for the season. All that stress isn’t going to be _my_ fault!”

“Enough,” Logan tried to intervene.

“It’ll be _yours_!” Virgil continued, raising his voice. “Every year, I try to tell you to slow down but do you listen? Have you _ever_ listened?! Not until those two—” He flung an arm out in Logan and Patton’s direction, “— are forced to step in and agree with me! Well, guess what, _Roman_!” Virgil spat, eyes blazing, “I’m not going to take it from you this time! Whether you like it or not, Thomas is working towards accepting me just as much as he does any of you and so we’re going to take it _easy_ this year because he needs a damn break!” Virgil gestured this time to Roman, “God, look at yourself, _you_ need a damn break!”

Upon closer inspection, it became clear just what Virgil was insinuating. Roman’s hair had lost its shine, there were bags under his eyes barely hidden by concealer, and while he wasn’t wearing his usual royal attire, even his loungewear looked wrinkled and unkempt.

Despite the tears welling in his eyes, Patton took a careful step forward and rested a hand on Roman’s forearm. “Ro… is there something you’re not telling us?”

Roman glanced only briefly at Patton, gave Virgil one last furious glare, and sunk out.

Patton’s hand hung in the open air a moment longer before his fingers curled slowly into a fist. He pressed it against his mouth and stifled a sob.

The fight seemed to drain out of Virgil immediately and he collapsed with a thud on the bottom step of the staircase. He swore under his breath.

“That… could have gone better,” Logan murmured, pinching the bridge of his nose.

“I’ll be in my room,” Patton managed in a choked voice. Before Logan or Virgil could react, he too disappeared from the living area.

“I didn’t mean it,” Virgil said.

“Yes. You did,” Logan disagreed, though it wasn’t unkind. With another sigh, he joined Virgil. The latter scooted over to make room for him, hugging his knees to his chest. Logan stretched his own legs out and rested his palms atop his thighs. “Let’s take a few deep breaths.”

Logan moved one hand to Virgil’s ankle, where he tapped out a 4-7-8 rhythm for Virgil and himself to inhale and exhale along to. After a few rounds of this, they had both calmed down considerably. Logan fixed his tie while Virgil toyed with the zipper on one of his sleeves.

“I believe you owe Roman an apology.”

“Only if he has one for me, too,” Virgil responded without hesitation.

“He will,” Logan continued, “Patton will make certain of it.”

“… Terrence’s gift doesn’t _have_ to be perfect,” Virgil said finally. “It’s Terrence! He and Thomas have been friends for years! Whatever we get him, he’ll love it. He’s one of the happiest people Thomas knows and he’s pretty easy to please and there’s really no going wrong with it so I don’t—”

“Virgil,” Logan interrupted gently, making an exaggerated point to take a deep breath in.

“… I don’t understand why Princey’s freaking out,” Virgil finished slowly.

“Roman may have been correct when he said it is your first Christmas with us. However, that does not mean that we’ve been without you for all of the others. Of course you’ve been as crucial a part of Thomas as any of us for quite some time and while he may only have recently begun to accept that, it does not mean that we are _more_ important than you. I… think that might be, at least partially, what has Roman so upset.”

Virgil rolled his eyes, “are you saying Roman’s mad because the fans like me better?”

“Yes.”

Logan’s blunt answer surprised Virgil, apparently. He reeled back. “They don’t, though! I’m… y’know!” He motioned wildly at himself. “Why would anyone like Anxiety better than Creativity?!”

Logan’s gaze drifted, going a bit distant. Neither spoke for a minute. Eventually, Logan turned to Virgil with a wry smile. “Why don’t you go talk to Roman? I’ll check on Patton.”

Virgil didn’t seem much like he wanted to go anywhere near Roman but he could feel the way Thomas was still recovering and Virgil knew it was because everyone had been so… heightened earlier. “Okay,” he mumbled at last, standing and heading up the stairs.

Roman’s room was across from Patton’s and while Virgil would have preferred going to Patton first and apologizing for the way he’d behaved, he knew which had to happen first.

He knocked on Roman’s door.

There was a crash, as if something had been dropped or knocked over. Virgil winced.

“… You good?”

Any shuffling on the other side ceased. There was a sniffle. Virgil internally cursed.

“What do you want?”

“Can I come in?”

Another pause before the handle turned and the door opened. Virgil noticed right away the redness of Roman's eyes and the hunch in his shoulders. He stepped aside to let Virgil in.

The room was in disarray. The sheets on the bed were tangled together, notebooks strewn across the floor, and there were a couple of trophies on the ground by the bookshelf they were normally kept on. Virgil assumed those were what had fell.

Roman threw himself back into the chair at his desk and went back to what Virgil guessed was his brainstorming for Terrence’s gift.

 _What a stupid reason for a fight,_ Virgil thought, morose.

“Are you just going to stand there?” Roman asked, voice rough.

“I’m sorry,” Virgil blurted.

Roman hesitated in his writing for a moment before he continued.

“What I said… it wasn’t fair. I would say I didn’t mean it but Logan already called me out on that.” Virgil fidgeted with his sleeves, pulling them over his hands. “I’ve been stressing about this since Thomas drew Terrence’s name but I guess I didn’t realize how you guys would react to it. It’s… I’ve kept it to myself in the past, so I thought it wouldn’t be an issue this time either.”

Roman slowed until he finally set the pen down. He sighed and Virgil watched as the stress seemed to melt off of his tense frame. He pivoted in his seat, facing Virgil, but not looking directly at him.

“I’m… sorry, too. I shouldn’t have automatically accused you. That was wrong. I made an assumption based off of what I used to… feel about you.”

Virgil grinned, a bit lopsided. “It hasn’t been very long since I started _fitting in,_ ” Roman snorted at the reference, “so I guess I can’t really blame you.”

Roman picked at his nail polish. Virgil shifted on his feet.

“Did you… talk to Patton?”

Roman shook his head.

“Logan said he would, so… What if… Maybe we could go and make cookies for him? We were both pretty rude to him.”

Roman frowned. “… I shoved him, didn’t I?”

Virgil nodded.

Roman stood and went back to the door, gesturing for Virgil to follow. They headed downstairs and to the kitchen. It was quiet on the lower floor so Virgil could only hope that Logan was consoling Patton — as best he could, anyway. He and Roman went to work on baking cookies. They weren’t from scratch; while either probably could have done it just fine, they figured the packaged mix would be done quicker and they wanted to help Patton feel better sooner rather than later. Sure enough, the tray had just come out of the oven when Patton and Logan returned.

There was flour in Roman’s hair and Virgil’s fingers were messy with melted chocolate. Patton giggled at the sight of them, but it didn’t sound quite right. Logan smiled at the pair of them from behind him.

“I’m sorry, sunshine,” Roman exclaimed, rushing to Patton and scooping him up into his arms. He twirled Patton around the kitchen and the laughter that followed sounded lighter and easier. “My behavior was positively atrocious and you deserve so much better than that! How ever shall I make it up to you?” He asked, letting Patton down and holding him gently by the shoulders, gazing at him earnestly.

“I’m sorry, too, Pat,” Virgil muttered, “I shouldn’t have been so rude. You just wanted me to dial it back before things escalated.”

Patton patted Roman softly on the cheek before looking to Virgil. “ _I_ shouldn’t have asked that of you. That wasn’t fair and I’m sorry.” Patton turned to Roman. “Ro, you may make it up to me by allowing me the first cookie.” His request was spoken seriously but there was a gleam in his eyes.

Roman nearly tripped over himself in his haste to do as Patton asked.

Eventually, they were sat around the dining room table. This time, Roman’s notebooks were organized and his pens were of the rainbow gel variety. They worked together to figure out a gift for Terrence that would be both fun and practical. By the end of their discussion, each was feeling much better about themselves and their bond with the others.

**Author's Note:**

> find me at [notveryglittery](https://notveryglittery.tumblr.com/) on tumblr!


End file.
